Method of making guiding means for machine carriages



W. SCHRAUB Aug. 13, 1968 METHOD OF MAKING GUIDING MEANS FOR MACHINECARRIAGES Original Filed March 25, 1964 United States Patent C 4 Claims.01. 156-257) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method of providing a planarportion of a supporting and guiding member with a planar guiding surfacefor supporting and guiding the movement of a movable member whichincludes the steps of forming grooves along the said planar portion ofsaid guiding member parallel to the length of the band and on oppositesides of said central portion of the band, but inwardly from the sideedges of said band, placing an adhesive in said grooves in an amount inexcess of the capacity of the grooves so that the adhesive protrudesfrom the top of the grooves, and displacing the adhesive laterally ofthe grooves by pressing said band on said planar portion of said guidingmember.

The present application is a division of my copending application Ser.No. 353,769, filed Mar. 23, 1964, and now US. Patent 3,311,425.

The present invention relates to guiding means for machine tool parts,especially for carriages, and also concerns a method of making suchguiding means.

Guiding means in the form of guiding tracks for machine t-ool parts,especially carriages, are known, in which a steel band or strap isclamped over the guiding member and connected thereto. It is on thissteel band or strap that the movable machine part slides, usually on asliding strip or foil, generally, of bronze.

With heretofore known arrangements of such tracks, the steel band isplaced directly upon the guiding member and is grasped at its lateraledges by steel clamping strips which, by means of screws, are screwed tothat portion of the guiding member which extends beyond the Width of thesteel band.

With this heretofore known arrangement, it is necessary to provide theguiding member with threaded bores for receiving the connecting screwswhich extend through the lateral steel strip. Furthermore, it has beenfound that gaps can form between the guiding member and the steelstrips, and that chips can enter said gap. It has, in fact, proveddifficult fully to cover the said gap so that chips will be preventedfrom entering the same. Even when employing a stripper, it is diflicultto keep the gap free from chips and from oil and drilling emulsions, allof which detract from the flatness of the steel strip.

It is also known to cement machine parts together, but it has notheretofore been the case that such steel strips were cemented in place.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of makingguiding means for machine tools according to which a steel band or strapis arranged in taut condition above the guiding or supporting member andis connected thereto, while avoiding the drawbacks of heretofore knownguiding means of this general type.

It is another object of this invention to provide a method as set forthin the preceding paragraph, which will make superfluous a post-grindingor an additional or ice post-machining of the guiding member or sectionsof the steel strap.

It is another object of this invention to provide a method as set forthin the preceding paragraph, according to which the steel strips orstraps will be and will remain completely planar.

Still another object of this invention consists in a method of makingguiding means which will prevent the collection of chips, oil ordrilling emulsions at undesired places beneath the steel strip of theguiding means.

Still another object of this invention consists in providing a method ofmakingguiding means as set forth above in a simple but highly effectivemanner.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear moreclearly from the following specification in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 illustrates the arrangement of a guiding member according tothe present invention in connection with a horizontal drilling or amilling machine;

FIGURE 2 shows the condition of the guiding member and of the steel bandprior to the interconnection of both parts;

FIGURE 3 shows the steel band connected to the guiding member;

FIGURE 4 illustrates a stripper of standard design employed inconnection with the present invention; and

FIGURE 5 shows one side of a modified guiding member made according tothe present invention.

The above-mentioned objects have been realized according to the presentinvention by providing the guiding or supporting member at its lateralportions with one or more grooves extending in the longitudinaldirection, and by cementing the lateral edges of the steel band or stripor strap between the grooves and the adjacent side wall portion to theguiding member. The intermediate section of the steel band below thesliding surface of the movable machine part will thus be free fromcement substance so that after applying a corosion protective coating tothe bottom side of the steel band and to the guiding member over thewidth of the sliding foil of the movable machine part, the band or stripwill directly engage and be supported by said guiding member. In thisway, a completely planar sliding surface of the steel band will beobtained while the space between the band and the guiding memberlaterally of said sliding surface will be covered completely so that nospaces will be formed in which chips, oil or drilling emulsions couldcollect. The steel band can easily be kept free from impurities inasmuchas a stripper on the member slidable on the band may work over theentire width of the steel strap.

The distance between the longitudinal grooves or, when employing aplurality of grooves on each longitudinal side of the guiding members,the distance between the inner longitudinal grooves, is at least asgreat, as the width of the sliding foil of the movable machine part.

Preferably, each longitudinal side of said guiding members is providedwith at least two grooves in which the outer groove is spaced an equaldistance from the longitudinal side of the guiding member and from theinner groove.

When employing the method according to the invention for making suchguiding means, provision is made that one groove of each longitudinalside of the guiding member is provided with a liquid or pasty adhesiveextending above the surface of the guiding member. Furthermore, themarginal portions of the steel strap are pressed upon the marginalportions of the guiding member. In this way, the adhesive extendingabove the surface of the guiding member is displaced laterally on thesurface of the guiding member. When provided with a plurality of groovesat each longitudinal side of the guiding member,

due to the fact that the outer groove is spaced from the inner grooveand from the longitudinal edge of the guiding member by the samedistance, a uniform escape path toward both sides of the outer groove isobtained for the adhesive which protrudes beyond the surface of theguiding member. In other words, a uniform distribution of the excessivequantity of adhesive to both sides of the outer groove will be obtainedat each longitudinal side of the guiding member and thus there will alsobe obtained a completely uniform gluinvg or cementing effect. The innergroove, in that case, forms a stop to prevent any cement from gettingunder the center portion of the steel band.

As adhesive may be selected substances which have a surface tension Ibymeans of which a convex liquid surface is formed. These adhesivesinclude also the multiple component adhesives.

Referrring now to the drawings in detail, in FIGURE 1 it will be notedthat the top surface of the box-shaped frame F is provided with tracks Gfor the longitudinal carriage L, which guiding tracks are arrangedbetween the main standard or column M and the auxiliary standard orcolumn S. A transverse carriage Q is slidably arranged on thelongitudinal carriage L, said transverse carriage Q carrying the settingtable T. Also, the transverse carriage may be provided with guidingtrack-s G. The guiding tracks so referred to are composed primarily ofguiding support member 1 and steel band or steel strap ST (FIGURE 2).

The guiding member 1 has a planar central surface section 2 which isconfined by two grooves 3, 4 extending in longitudinal direction of theguiding member 1 near the lateral edges and 6. Between said grooves 3and 4 and said lateral edges 5 and 6 there are provided further grooves7 and 8 which are parallel to grooves 3 and 4 and preferably, but notnecesarily, have the same crosssection as said grooves 3 and 4. Grooves3, 7 and 4, 8 near the longitudinal edges 5 and 6 of the guiding member1 form therebetween a planar supporting surface 9 and 10 respectively,which is located at the same level as surface 2. Similar supportingsurfaces 11, 12 are provided ibetween the grooves 7 and 8 and thelongitudinal edges 5 and 6. Grooves 7 and 8 are filled with a liquid orpasty adhesive, preferably a multiple component adhesive. This adhesiveis shown in FIGURES 2 and 3 in grooves 7 and 8. The quantity of adhesivein grooves 7 and 8 is selected so that the free surface of the adhesivehas an upwardly directed convex surface.

After part 2 of the top surface of guiding member 1 and the bottom side13 of steel band ST has been provided with a corrosion protectivecoating over the width between grooves 3 and 4, the steel band ST ispressed upon the guiding member 1. In this way, the lateral marginalportions 14 and 15 of the steel band will press upon the adhesive ingrooves 7 and 8 so that the excessive quantity of adhesive, i.e., theadhesive protruding beyond the surfaces 9 to 12, will be displacedlaterally whereby the said cement will be uniformily distributed overthe surfaces 9 to 12. That portion of the adhesive which is pressedbeyond the edge of the surfaces 9 to 12 will pass either into grooves 3,4, as indicated by the dots at 16, 17 and 18, 19, or over the side edges5, 6. The intermediate surface section 2 of the guiding member 1 will,however, remain free from adhesive. Thus, the support of the steel bandST by the intermediate portion of the guiding member 1 will not beaffected by said application of adhesive. The band will rest flat on theguiding member 1 within the said intermediate section.

The thus supported bands form guideways for moveable parts. In FIGURE 1the guideways G on bed F support carriage L, while guideways G oncarriage L support carriage Q.

When employing a stripper 20 known per se, as it is illustrated inFIGURE 3, connected to the carriage 1, the stripper plate 21 connectedto the stripper body will slide over the entire width of the steel band,as shown in FIG- URE 3 in dish lines. The steel strip ST on which thesliding foil R of the carriage slides will thus be kept free fromimpurities over its entire surface.

Surface 2, which is that part of the planar top surface of the supportmember between the inner-most grooves 3 and 4, referably has such awidth that it corresponds to that of foil R.

The strap or band does not necessarily have to be made of steel, but canbe made also of other metal suitable for the purpose involved.

Furthermore, it is to be noted that the term steel strap not only coversa straight strap but also a curved one.

It is, of course, to be understood, that the present invention is, by nomeans, limited to the particular construction shown in the drawing, butalso comprises any modifications within the scope of the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a method of providing a planar portion of a supporting and guidingmember with a planar guiding surface for supporting and guiding themovement of a movable member according to which a band is arranged intaut condition above the supporting and guiding member and is connectedthereto, which includes the steps of: forming grooves along the saidplanar portion of said guiding member parallel to the length of the bandand on opposite sides of said central portion of the band, but inwardlyfrom the side edges of said band, placing an adhesive in said grooves inan amount in excess of the capacity of the grooves so that the adhesiveprotrudes from the tops of the grooves, and displacing the adhesivelaterally of the grooves by pressing said band on said planar portion ofsaid guiding member.

2. A method according to claim 1, which includes forming a stop groovein said guiding member parallel to said first mentioned grooves andbetween each first mentioned groove and the said central portion of saidband and into which the adhesive from said first mentioned grooves canoverflow when said band is pressed on said guiding member therebypreventing any adhesive from getting onto said central portion of saidband.

3. A method according to claim 2, in which said stop grooves are spacedapart by a distance about equal to the width of the part of saidmoveable member that engages said band.

4. A method according to claim 2, which includes the step of providingthe surface region of said guiding member between said inner grooves andthe contiguous surface of said band with a corrosion resistant coatingon said surface.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,707,694 5/1955 Standring156-295 X 2,744,846 5/1956 Stickles 156-291 X 3,176,353 4/1965 Pilliodet al. 156-295 X 3,350,249 10/1967 Gregoire 156-291 X 3,355,341 11/1967Bertsche 156-295 3,355,342 11/1967 Lanman 156-298 X HAROLD ANSHER,Primary Examiner.

